Why did Maximilien Robespierre promote the Cult of the Supreme Being?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Maximilien Robespierre promoted the Cult of the Supreme Being primarily because he was a Deist influenced by the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.1

He strongly disapproved of the radical anti-Christian movement and the "masquerades" associated with the contemporary cult of reason. By establishing a civic religion centered on the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, Robespierre sought to rally revolutionaries around a unified moral and spiritual framework. This initiative was intended to provide a structured alternative to the de-Christianization efforts he found distasteful, though the resulting festival in June 1794 ultimately provided his political enemies with further justification to oppose him.1